So far, the traffic generated in mobile networks such as e.g. GERAN (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network), and UTRAN (UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network) has mostly been dominated by services that require human interaction, such as e.g. regular speech calls, web-surfing, sending MMS (Multimedia Service Messaging) messages, doing video-chats etc. The same traffic pattern is also anticipated for E-UTRAN (Evolved-UTRAN). As a natural consequence, these networks are designed and optimized primarily for these “Human Type Communication” (HTC) services.
There is however an ever-increasing market segment of Machine Type Communication (MTC) services, which do not necessarily need human interaction. MTC includes a very diverse flora of applications ranging from e.g. vehicle applications (automatic emergency calls, remote diagnostics and telematics, vehicle tracking etc.) to gas- and power-meter readings and also network surveillance and cameras, just to give a few examples. The requirements these services put on the serving network, e.g. in terms of the number of communication devices to be served in the network, will likely differ from what is provided by today's HTC-optimized mobile networks.